virtual server environment

Server virtualization is becoming a no-brainer for any business that runs more than one application on servers. Nowadays, a low-end server is 64-bit capable and comes with at least 8GB of memory. Without virtualization, most such servers cruise along at 5 percent of CPU capacity with gigabytes of free memory and some I/O bandwidth to spare. Virtualization helps you better utilize these resources.

Today, nearly every datacenter has become heavily virtualized. In fact, according to Gartner as many as 75% of X86 server workloads are already virtualized in the enterprise datacenter. Yet even with the growth rate of virtual machines outpacing the rate of physical servers, industry wide, most virtual environments continue to be protected by backup systems designed for physical servers, not the virtual infrastructure they are used on. Even still, data protection products that are virtualization-focused may deliver additional support for virtual processes, but there are pitfalls in selecting the right approach.
This paper will discuss five common costs that can remain hidden until after a virtualization backup system has been fully deployed.

Virtualization has transformed the data center over the past decade. IT departments use virtualization to consolidate multiple server workloads onto a smaller number of more powerful servers. They use virtualization to scale existing applications by
adding more virtual machines to support them, and they deploy new applications without having to purchase additional servers to do so. They achieve greater resource utilization by balancing workloads across a large pool of servers in real time—and they respond more quickly to changes in workload or server availability by moving virtual machines between physical servers. Virtualized environments support private clouds on which application engineers can now provision their own virtual servers and networks in environments that expand and contract on demand.

This ESG Lab report presents the results of a mixed workload performance benchmark test designed to assess the real world performance capabilities of an IBM Storwize V7000 storage system and IBM x3850 X5 servers in a VMware-enabled virtual server environment.

The identity and access management challenges that exist in the physical world - identity management, application security, access control, managing sensitive data, user activity logging, and compliance reporting - are even more critical in the virtual environments that are growing in use as IT seeks to streamline its operations and reduce operating costs. However, security risks are increased due to the nature of the virtualization environment and IT should seek to extend their security solutions from the physical server environment to the virtualization environment as seamlessly as possible.
Continue reading this white paper to learn how CA Content-Aware IAM solutions help protect customers in the physical world and similarly protect virtual environments by controlling identities, access, and information usage.

Many companies have turned to virtualization technologies for their servers and in their data centers to simplify administration and to reduce management chores and operating costs while maintaining reliability and safeguarding against disasters. Seeing the significant benefits virtualization delivers in those environments, companies are now looking to apply the same technology to their desktop computers.

What are your peers doing in terms of virtualizing Exchange? This 2008 Computerworld Research study explores initiatives surrounding virtualizing Microsoft Exchange. It analyzes Exchange 2007 migration and upgrade plans, the many drivers behind virtualizing Exchange, the challenges faced when virtualizing Exchange, the current status of virtualized server environments, and more.

NetApp® SnapManager® for Oracle (SMO) is designed to significantly simplify all these tasks and more. In this article, we examine how you can deploy SMO to simplify and even automate data protection, recovery, and cloning across both primary and secondary storage. Learn more today!

When considering server virtualization, planning and design are critical. How do you optimize your environment through virtualization? How do you keep your server sprawl from becoming virtual server sprawl? How will a virtualized environment help your business? Will your existing data center meet current, and future, business requirements? Answer your Questions today!

Today's use of virtualization technology allows IT professionals to automatically manage the resources of the physical server to efficiently support multiple operating systems, each supporting different applications. This IDC Technology Assessment presents IDC's view of how virtualization technologies are impacting and will continue to impact operating environments and the operating environment market near- and long-term.

Understanding the latest developments in storage technology is crucial when planning a virtual server storage architecture, and choosing the wrong storage architecture can dramatically impair your ability to provide application resources and recoverability. This best practices guide will show you how to lay the foundation for an efficient, easy-to-manage storage environment.

Enterprise Strategy Group analysts Mark Bowker and Mark Peters will share the business drivers and benefits for virtualizing both servers and storage. You'll gain an understanding of IT infrastructure virtualization in order to evaluate the operational benefits it could provide. You'll also learn what steps to take to assess your IT environment to quantify the benefits of virtualization.

HotSchedules needed an agile and scalable IT environment that could respond quickly to growth opportunities. The company deployed the Windows Server 2008 operating system with Hyper-V virtualization technology to consolidate its server environment, reduce costs, and maximize network performance. By hosting up to 19 virtual machines on each physical server, HotSchedules increased its growth capacity while cutting power costs 77 percent and enhancing the company’s competitive position.

Many organizations have adopted virtualization as a standard for server workloads. But virtualization has not proven to be the “game changer” many organizations had envisioned. IT departments face huge challenges related to server sprawl, which has actually increased with virtualization.
Although virtualization has brought benefits beyond the physical paradigm of one operating system per server, the true optimal infrastructure for organizations comes with adopting a private cloud infrastructure.
Check out this white paper to learn the benefits of a private cloud and discover how deploying one private cloud solution can provide:
Consolidated resources
Flexible services
Easy provisioning of new environments
And more

Maximize Efficiency and Availability with Hyper-V R2 and NetApp. View this on-demand Webcast to learn how you can increase resource utilization, streamline management, and maximize uptime in your Microsoft environment.

This report is a must-read for companies struggling to back up their newly virtualized server environments. Read this brief to get real-world case studies on how Sterling Testing and Kindred Healthcare have overcome the challenges of protecting VMware environments by implementing high performance virtual tape libraries (VTLs).

Today's IT organizations are faced with the daunting task of optimizing all aspects of their departments, including people, processes and technology. Optimizing and streamlining server utilization through virtualization represents one particularly exciting example. We found that one of the most popular usage models for virtualization is to drive down server procurements in development, test and production environments. When this model is followed, future server purchases are avoided; instead, new workloads are established on existing systems.

In this part II of Enhancing Server And Desktop Virtualization With SSD, Storage Switzerland focuses on the next challenge of integrating SSD into a virtual server or desktop infrastructure and effectively using the technology in this environment.

IT virtualization, the engine behind cloud computing, can have significant consequences on the data center physical infrastructure (DCPI). Higher power densities that often result can challenge the cooling capabilities of an existing system. Reduced overall energy consumption that typically results from physical server consolidation may actually worsen the data center’s power usage effectiveness (PUE). Dynamic loads that vary in time and location may heighten the risk of downtime if rack-level power and cooling health are not understood and considered. Finally, the fault-tolerant nature of a highly virtualized environment could raise questions about the level of redundancy required in the physical infrastructure. These particular effects of virtualization are discussed and possible solutions or methods for dealing with them are offered.